Rose Folder Powell doubted she'd ever get back to her hometown. But even if she did, who would remember her?

Bernice Meyer, for one.

Meyer, who is 91 years old, certainly remembered her childhood friend and baseball teammate from the Cabbage Patch on Springfield's south side.

When Meyer, a lifelong city resident, learned the 87-year-old Powell was going to be at the Crowne Plaza on Monday night to be inducted into the Springfield Sports Hall of Fame, Meyer made sure she'd be there, too.

Before the induction banquet, Powell and Meyer sat and reminisced about their childhood days in the 1930s and 40s. They both looked through a photo album full of black-and-white team pictures.

“I didn't know (Meyer) was going to be here; Mom didn't even know she'd be here,” said Powell's son, Roger Powell, who brought his mother to Springfield from their home in Carnation, Wash.

“Mom didn't know if there'd be anyone around who'd remember her. This is great.”

Meyer never played professional baseball, but Powell did for one season with the Kenosha Comets of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Distinguished class

Powell was one of five individual inductees Monday night. The others were longtime area track and cross country coach Mike Johnson; Griffin High School graduate and world-class sailor Joe Londrigan; former Sacred Heart Academy volleyball standout Debbie Urbanckas-Jemison, and former Lanphier basketball standout Ivan Jackson.

Jackson was unable to make the trip from his home in New Mexico, so his grandson, Christian Vance, accepted on Jackson's behalf. Stephen Ratterree accepted for his father, Bruce Ratterree, who was inducted posthumously as a Friend of Sport for his role in developing Chamberlain Park.

“I remember dad first brought me up there and I saw the old boiler works,” Bruce said of the Chamberlain Park site. “I said, ‘Dad, how in the world can this be turned into a baseball park?'

“It was great to just watch the transformation. It was a great project for that area.”

Cherished memories

The Hall of Fame banquet often serves as a reunion for old friends, and Powell and Meyer were at the forefront.

They both were pitchers, having learned the craft from A.C. Young, the pastor at Concordia Lutheran School when it was located in their old neighborhood at 13th and Knox. Powell believed Meyer, a 1940 Feitshans graduate, could have played professionally herself.

“She was great,” Powell said of Meyer.

“I played ball with Rose at Iles Park,” Meyer said. “When we found out Rose was coming tonight, we knew we had to come to this affair.”

Page 2 of 2 - Powell said getting to see Meyer capped a whirlwind experience for her.

“It's been incredible,” Powell said. “I was shocked when I got that letter (about her induction).

“I never thought I'd be back again.”

Team honor

Also on hand Monday were six members of this year's Hall of Fame team, the 1985 national runner-up Springfield Spoke Jockeys wheelchair basketball squad. They included player-coach George Veenstra, who entered the Hall individually in 2003.

Veenstra couldn't guarantee it, but he believed the Spoke Jockeys earned a special distinction Monday night.

“I think we're the first wheelchair basketball team to be inducted into any Hall of Fame,” Veenstra said. “I've been on the National Wheelchair Basketball Hall of Fame committee for 25 years, and I'd never heard of any team being inducted.”

Veenstra is also a member of the NWB Hall of Fame, which has individual inductees, but not teams. Rich Diecker, also an NWB Hall of Famer, played for the 1985 Spoke Jockeys but died in 2004.

Johnson, a 1968 Springfield High graduate, is also a member of the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame. But he said entering the Springfield Sports Hall of Fame was special because of those who've gone in before him.

One of them, former Springfield High track coach Art Cochran, was there to see Johnson's induction Monday night. Even though track wasn't Johnson's top sport at SHS, he credited Cochran with helping him as a coach later on.

“It means a whole heck of a lot,” Johnson said of being inducted. “I was born and raised in Springfield, went to school here and still live here.

“So to be honored with the inductees I see on this list, it's a privilege and an honor. It's kind of like a dream to me. And my family is just as excited as I am.”